Dallas-Fort Worth Airport has amazing new way to build passenger gates

Jane Levere, CNN

Airport gates are usually the last point of solid ground airplanes experience before they take off, but at one U.S. airport, several gates embarked on their own incredible journey this month due to a remarkable feat of engineering.

In what was initially considered the aviation industry, four newly built gates – box-shaped rooms made of concrete, glass, and steel – could be seen crawling across the tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas in the middle of the night, the second busiest airport in the United States. before they were installed in their new home in Terminal C.

The almost unimaginable feat was accomplished late Thursday evening and into the following morning, when the final gate – built remotely on the airport grounds for its Terminal C – was transported over a runway by a high-tech low-loader and connected to the terminal for use by American Airlines at their primary hub.

Three more new gates were relocated in the same way from August 26th to September 8th. Passengers will be boarding and disembarking there for the next year if everything goes according to plan.

DFW officials told CNN in an exclusive interview that this type of gate construction and transportation – which was in the works before the pandemic began – is a first for airports worldwide.

They also said it could make a template for other airports to copy as it is both time and cost efficient and has sustainability features as well.

A busy terminal

Terminal C is fully occupied by American, which operates narrow-body and regional aircraft there. It is also DFW’s largest, busiest, and oldest terminal.

The outermost gates – 33, 35, 36, 37, and 39 – comprise a 72,000-square-foot extension that was built in 1988.

DFW boss Sean Donohue said Terminal C’s five gates from 1988 should be used for a maximum of 10 or 15 years. Due to its central location and constant use, DFW has decided not to replace it yet.

Its demolition began in February and was completed in March when work began on the foundations and underground lines for the new gates at the terminal. This work was completed in August.

Such a complicated project took a lot of players to make it happen.

DFW worked with construction companies Archer Western, HJ Russell and Phillips / May; Design company PGAL; and Henderson Rogers civil engineering to replace the 1988 gates.

A £ 900,000 job

They devised the plan to remotely build four new gates and renovate the fifth old gate on site.

DFW was able to build the four new gates remotely due to its enormous size: With an area of ​​17,000 hectares in the vast plains of North Texas between Dallas and Forth Worth, it is the second largest airport in the United States.

Khaled Naja, Executive Vice President for Infrastructure and Development at DFW, explained another attraction of the plan: By working on the remote location next to the airfield on the east side of the airport, DFW could accelerate the actual prefabrication process.

This is where the new gates were built from April to August, each weighing 900,000 pounds or about 408,200 kilograms.

The flight operations of the DFW cease every night at 11 p.m. 10.

After the modules were relocated, they were welded to the end of Terminal C, which was previously occupied by the 1988 Gates.

Fine tuning

The four new gates cover a total area of ​​80,000 square meters and have prefabricated steel frames, glass walls, concrete floors and roofs made of concrete, asphalt and fiberglass.

Now that they are in place, their interiors are being completed.

This process includes connecting underground and above-ground utilities and installing toilets. Once this work is complete, American can furnish the interiors of the gates and add seats, desks, signs, and the architectural framework for concessions.

The opening of the new doors is planned for June 2022.

The fifth new gate will be built on site at Terminal C from June to August 2022. Travelers can avoid the construction work as required by crossing the terminal hall unhindered.

Better goals, better trips

Donohue said the new gates will offer travel-friendly features that he hopes will be available in all five DFW terminals in the long term.

The area of ​​each new gate will be approximately 30% larger than that of other DFW gates, while new electrical signs will clearly display flight information throughout the gate area.

The toilets at the new gates will also provide information about the availability of stands there and elsewhere in the terminal, a feature that DFW has been offering in Terminals A and D since May 2020.

Most importantly, the walls of the new gates are made of so-called “dynamic glass”, which Donohue says will make the temperatures in the gate areas 15 to 20 degrees cooler in summer.

Faster and cheaper than traditional methods

Donohue said the construction and relocation process of Terminal C’s new gates “enabled us to deliver the project 20% faster and 25% cheaper than if traditional construction had been used.

The cost of the project is US $ 215 million, 62% will be borne by DFW and 38% by American Airlines.

Donohue also said the Covid-19 pandemic had “not had a major impact” on this process.

DFW said it had been contacted by other domestic and international airports to request information about the Terminal C Gates project.

“As airports, we share a lot of information and we are open to sharing it with other airports,” said Donohue.

“A complete paradigm shift”

“Net net, it will be a good thing if airports can efficiently run such projects for time and money,” he added, predicting that what DFW has done “could be a complete paradigm shift in terminal development, who helps them achieve a lot “. faster and more efficient. “

Sustainability is also a factor, so Naja.

The dynamic glass keeps the door areas cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning and electricity, while the remote construction of the doors minimizes waste as they are made to measure.

American Airlines did not respond to a request for comment on their new gates at DFW.

The CNN Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company. All rights reserved.

[ad_1]